About Paul C. Gascoigne
Paul Gascoigne, a baby boomer, grew up in two worlds: one in suburban Glenroy in 1960s and ’70s Melbourne, and the second travelling with his parents in their FJ Holden ute and 1953 Don Bond wood caravan on frequent working holidays, as his dad, Colin, followed work across rural Victoria building public schools for the Education Department.
Paul, bitten by the travel bug like his father, later toured Australia in a 1972 Volkswagen Kombi with bald tyres, an overheating problem, and windscreen wipers that didn’t work if they got wet. Oh, and there was that side door that kept falling off…
His interest in writing became apparent to his father in the 1960s when Paul began using an “air typewriter”, making clicking sounds as he did so. His father nailed two pieces of floorboard together to form a tiered thingy that looked like a typewriter and nailed in a “keyboard” of plasterer’s clouts with QWERTY Texta-colour lettering on each nail head. This device was of limited use…
At nine, he drew a series of comics on a “Jumbo Scribbler” writing pad following “The Adventures of Rocket Dog”. Invariably, every comic involved a small dog with a rocket strapped to his back that flew through a forest fire or burning house, putting out the flames by “super pissing” on them. This became somewhat monotonous…
At 12, Paul wrote a science fiction novel on fish and chip paper that was a cross between Lost in Space, Batman, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lord of the Rings, and Mister Ed. Strangely enough, this failed to be published…
Inspired by Clark Kent’s typing speed on The Adventures of Superman, he made plans to get into print by buying black biro. Unfortunately, these plans didn’t go much further.
In 1972, his writing career made a giant leap forward when he used his entire accumulated fortune, totalling about $40, to buy an original old black Remington typewriter made in 1914. This replaced the two bits of wood with nails in them and was a great success, since it was an actual, real typewriter that worked.
After failing English (and a few other subjects) at high school, he decided he wanted to be either a journalist, an archaeologist, a palaeontologist, a physicist, a photographer, a novelist, an astronomer, an artist, an astronaut, or a postman.
Having to choose between one of these, he settled on house painting, which was short-lived due to an allergy to paint thinners.
In subsequent years, he ran an antique stall in Chapel Street, Prahran, and worked at various jobs, all of which he hated due to the fact that they were not writing.
In his spare time, he dedicated his efforts to bringing his dad’s stories to life and wrote nine books based on his dad’s life as a swagman in the 1930s Depression era… Hang on… That doesn’t sound so bad… Maybe he was a success after all?
The Tanglefoot Collection
Colin Gascoigne, born in 1914, used to say, tongue-in-cheek, “When I was born, they started a war to mark the occasion, and everything went flamin’ well downhill from there on…”
Born in Sydney to a French mother, Colin was branded as a “foreigner” and a “Froggie” even before he started school. One of his earliest memories involves riding in a jinker to pick up his newborn sister from a shop where babies were sold. However, he was more preoccupied with staring at the horse’s arse in front of him and wishing he could have a tail too.
When he started school, he tripped, was branded a clumsy “Tanglefoot”, and got picked on by every bully. In 1919, he was taken to Wirth Brothers Circus, where his aunty “Fuzzie” worked as a circus performer. As she prepared for her performing seal act, Colin was left in a gypsy wagon with a creepy, foul-mouthed, alcoholic, chain-smoking, phlegm-spitting clown who told dirty jokes. The five-year-old was not amused.
Around 1921, he was taken to Glenroy Aerodrome to go on a biplane joy flight, but missed out when the biplane before his turn plummeted into the ground, killing everyone. In subsequent years, his dad was almost murdered during the 1923 police strike, his brother died, his dog was hit by a train but miraculously revived, and was then killed due to a bad haircut. Soon after, Colin fell headfirst off a moving tram, almost dying from a head injury.
“There’s a few things back then that could’ve gone a bit better,” Colin admitted.
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I’ve Seen a Lot of Country Collection
In “Murtoa Revisited”, Book One of “I’ve Seen a Lot of Country”, the Gascoigne family is destitute. Colin Gascoigne goes on the track, carrying the swag with his father, William. They revisit his father’s childhood home on the Hateley wheat farm at Murtoa. The father-and-son team finds work harvesting wheat on farms throughout the Wimmera.
For William, known as “Billy Boy” by the locals, the return to Murtoa is a nostalgic and emotional trip down memory lane, and the experience cements a stronger bond between father and son. Returning home, they still face a bleak and uncertain future. The Great Depression is in full swing, and pressures on the family cause a marriage breakup, leading to Colin’s father, William, leaving home under the pretext of going to Sydney to find work.
Colin blames himself for his parents’ breakup, feeling he should have done more to stop it. As “Murtoa Revisited” ends, Colin is poised to pack his swag and jump a rattler to Sydney, having taken it upon himself to find his father and bring him home.